The background information discussed below is presented to better illustrate the novelty and usefulness of the present invention. This background information is not admitted prior art.
There have been myriad attempts to improve physical exercise and fitness routines to promote an individual's good health and well-being. On a regularly recurring basis, television screens are saturated with infomercials and the like advertising sure-to-succeed exercise and dance routines seemingly guaranteed to develop for the television-viewer a sound body and healthy physique, not to mention to expedite weight reduction and other health benefits. But, there has been significantly less emphasis upon providing low-impact, essentially stress-free exercises and the like targeted for use by injured or handicapped or otherwise crippled personnel or senior citizens or even the elderly. Indeed, generally, rehabilitation and exercise routines have typically been the exclusive bailiwick of professional therapists and the healthcare professionals.
Nevertheless, there have been attempts to improve the state of the art for promoting such disadvantaged individuals' good health and well-being. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,174,494, Maguire discloses a contoured crutch which has a hand grip contoured to receive the heel of the hand. Positioned upwardly from the rear of the hand grip is a concave or hollowed-out arm receiving section which continues up to a little bit above the elbow of the user, or may be of just sufficient length to receive part of the forearm. A body support, shaped somewhat like the conventional underarm or armpit grip, but curved to fit more comfortably against the side of the body as well as in the armpit, forms the top portion of the crutch and is situated just slightly above the top portion of the arm support. The hand grip has a rear portion which is somewhat flattened and of an enlarged area, and which is contoured to receive the heel of the user's hand, and has a slightly convex contoured portion to fit into the palm of the hand, while the fingers may be lapped around the forward portion of the hand grip and the other edge indented a concavity to comfortably fit the grasping thumb. The curved arm support extending up from the heel of the hand receives the forearm and the elbow and the lower portion of the upper arm to be supported and maintained thereby. At the same time this arm support, behind the forearm and elbow, does not completely capture these parts, so that the individual using the crutch is not deprived of complete freedom of movement of the arm into other positions if necessary or intended.
As another example, Gilmore, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,811, discloses overcoming a long-standing deficiency of spring-tension crutch cuffs and also cuffs tend to be loose-fitting to facilitate insertion of forearms thereinto but fail to grip the forearm with sufficient firmness to assure stability. A cylindrically-curved cuff pivotally connected to joinder member by a pivot pin/bolt; joinder member configured with pair of orthogonal angularly-spaced side arms. The cylinder is split and grooved at approximately 15° from a lug, thereby forming a narrow thin hinge section. This split and hinge divide the cylindrical cuff strap into a larger section that is fixed with respect to lug and a smaller movable section that is pivoted for enabling swinging movement toward and away from the free end thereof. This configuration is essential so that the larger fixed section overhangs the forearm of the user so that the crutch remains hanging from the forearm, even though the smaller section is wide open, while at the same time the opening provided is sufficiently wide to allow the forearm to be removed sideways from the cuff.
Still another crutch-based improvement in the art was disclosed by Herr in U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,143 in which a crutch having an elbow spring and shank spring permits maximum locomotion efficiency by a user for maneuvering over flat surfaces, up and down steps, and up and down hills. It attaches to user's arm wherein elastic springs absorb the energy of impact of the crutch with a surface and then releases this energy to propel the user upwards and forwards. The Herr Crutch also has springs for storing energy when the elbow flexes and releases energy to assist elbow extension, thereby enabling the user to invoke both elbow muscle flexors and extensors to ascend stairways and hills. This invention demonstrates how springs can be used in a crutch to maximize cushioning, stability, and efficiency.
Bingham, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,087, discloses an apparatus to assist a developmentally-delayed child assume various postural and ambulatory positions including oblique or horizontal crawling all-fours or quadruped positions. Straps are connected proximal to a child's rear hip and height-adjustment is readily achieved in order to hold the child at a predetermined height, thereby enabling the child to move down to a hand-and-knee weight-bearing crawling position or up therefrom in a non-weight-bearing, suspended position from above. Embodiments can also be used for disabled adults. The straps are strategically emplaced upon a user's shoulder areas and interconnected with an axially slidable adjustable damping member that limits the “bounce” invoked as incentive to trigger controlled creeping or quadruped movement
Buitoni, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,065, teaches extending the reach of a user's forearms for equalizing the hip-to-foot distance and shoulder-to-forearm extension distance. The rear dorsal portion of a user's hand grasps a brace in the forward direction and elbow-end of his forearm is grasped by an arm-embracer, and at least a portion of the wrist-end of the forearm contacts a forearm support at its forward-facing surface. With this brace being connected to a post, the brace-post combination is slidably engaged and coupled by a shock-absorbing coupling. The outer end of the post terminates in a foot that, when contacting the ground, enables the brace-post combination to rotate about an axis perpendicular to the forward direction. Accordingly, the foot may be hinged to the post, interconnected to the post with a flat spring, or have a lower cylindrical surface—having along axis parallel to the axis of rotation. The shock-absorbing coupling reduces impulse transmitted to the user's writ and shoulder as the user's foot strikes the ground.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,789, Alter discloses pair of arm braces that enable walking or running movement on all fours that simultaneously exercises arms and legs absent any back stress, which is commonly experienced during conventional locomotion in a vertical orientation—on two feet of course—absent squatting. These relatively short braces are grasped akin to crutches wherein the back dorsal portion of the user's hands are facing outwards, perpendicular to direction of movement. This orientation appears to be counterproductive to facilitating users' all-fours stride-length (similar to that of a four-legged animal). Lengths of its support member and U-shaped member are selected wherein the arm brace compensates for different length of a user's arms and legs. Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,998,043, Zhou et al. disclose a prone crawling dual-track exercise apparatus that simulates a four-limbed animal's crawling-based locomotion; and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,352,356, Lillibridge discloses a creeping device for assisting physically and mentally retarded users perform creeping-based exercises.
Accordingly, while limited progress has been made for enabling physically or mentally challenged individuals to engage in regular exercise routines to promote health and wellness, what is needed in the art is an apparatus that effectively enables users of virtually all physical and mental conditions, regardless of whether normal or injured or handicapped or otherwise deficient, to participate in essentially natural crawling-based exercise routines that require minimum balance and stability attributes, and nevertheless afford maximum benefit to be derived from simultaneously implicating both arms and both legs in an all-fours protocol. These limitations and disadvantages of the prior art are overcome with embodiments of the present invention, wherein improved means and techniques are provided which are especially useful for effectuating all-fours exercise routines in which the user has the benefit of invoking an embodiment of the instant hand-crawler glove apparatus that enables exercises to be conducted at a pace commensurate with the user's physical and mental capabilities and athletic prowess, while inherently avoiding undue impact or stress upon the user's anatomy and intertwined joints and musculature. The prior art appears to be devoid of any convenient and sufficiently portable apparatus that reliably enables a user to engage in challenging all-fours crawling exercises as contemplated herein.